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Since its founding in 1946, the oldest pluralistic Jewish day school in North America has been known as the Akiba Hebrew Academy. But it will soon go by a new name, the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy -- a change that school and Jewish-community officials insist will help ensure its future as a top-notch institution. The name change comes as...

Officials at Gratz College hoped that screening a film about a teen girl's struggle to reconcile her homosexuality with Judaism, while also challenging her high school to become a more welcoming place, might prompt some discussion and send a message that the Melrose Park campus is an open environment for Jews of diverse backgrounds. Five years ago, Shulamit Izen --...

The students stood in two concentric circles -- one facing out, one facing in. Each person in each pair had only 30 seconds to speak. Their partners had to remain in complete silence. The prompts started out simply enough: Talk about spring-break plans, your most embarrassing memories. The responses to these topics drew on the normal bustle of teen lives...

Maybe you learned about it in Hebrew school, or maybe you have a family member who's a survivor -- or a relative who didn't make it out of Europe -- but if you're Jewish, chances are good that you know of the Shoah. But what about non-Jews? How do they come to understand -- and possibly to empathize with --...

In the age of video games, iPods and the Internet, the notion that children today don't read enough is an oft-repeated refrain. But there are always exceptions to the rule. And two of them -- Sarah Stern, 8, and her brother David, 5 -- live right here. Over approximately two months, Sarah, a third-grade student at Uwchlan Hills Elementary School...